What Does Psalm 37:31 Mean?
The instruction of his God is in his heart, and none of his steps will totter.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.THE KEY
The steady step begins with instruction already carried within the heart.
THE MEANING
God’s instruction is held within the heart, where it becomes an inner direction. The verse describes steps that remain steady because that direction is already within.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that guidance exists only as an external rule; here it has entered the heart and shapes each step.
THE ROOT
תּוֹרָה
torah
GROWS FROM
ירה
y-r-h
To direct, point out, or teach.
Torah carries the sense of instruction that points a way forward. What steadies the steps is not merely a rule imposed from outside, but direction taken into the heart.
ALSO GROWS
yarah: To teach or direct
יָרָה
This is the root’s guiding sense, linking instruction with a path to follow.
moreh: Teacher or instructor
מוֹרֶה
The teacher’s role is to direct; Torah is instruction that gives the heart its course.
אֲשֻׁרָיו
ashurav
GROWS FROM
אשר
ʾ-sh-r
To go straight, advance, or move forward; the same root also carries the sense of flourishing.
The word for his steps, אֲשֻׁרָיו (ashurav, his steps), shares its root with אַשְׁרֵי (ashrei, flourishing). The verse links a steady walk with flourishing: inner instruction gives the life its forward course.
ALSO GROWS
ashur: A step or stride
אָשׁוּר
This is the word’s concrete image of movement through life.
ashrei: Flourishing
אַשְׁרֵי
The shared root connects steady movement with a life advancing toward flourishing.
THE PATTERN
Instruction carried within shapes the direction of a life outward.
And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart.Lean your full weight upon the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, perceive him, and he straightens your paths.Let the word of the Anointed One settle in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another, in plucked songs, in hymns, and in songs of breath, singing with favor in your hearts to God.THE THREAD
I store your word in my heart, so that I do not miss the mark against you.Both verses place God’s word in the heart, and both turn on the Hebrew word לֵב (lev, heart). Psalm 119 makes the inner placement vivid: the word is kept within the heart, where it can shape what comes next.
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